NNPC boosts gas supply to power sector by 88.89%

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) increased the supply of gas to the power sector by 88.89 per cent between January 2017 and January 2018.
A press statement by the NNPC Spokesman, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja on Sunday, said the information was reported in the corporation’s monthly Financial and Operations report for January 2018.
Ughamadu quoted the monthly report as saying that gas-to-power supply as at January 2018 stood at 731 million metric standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day as against 387mmscf/d in January 2017.
”An average of 731mmscf/d of gas was sent to over 20 domestic thermal power plants in the month of January 2018.
“This generated a thermal power output of 3,076 megawatts (mw) to the national grid, representing 76.7 per cent of the total national power generation,” he said.
According to him, an additional 365mmscf/d of gas was supplied to the industrial sector to power over 50 companies in the period under review to boost the nation’s economy.
”The total gas production for the month was put at 8,169mmscf/d out of which 14 per cent was supplied to the domestic market, 43 per cent for export, while 31 per cent was re-injected and the balance flared.
”The 30th edition of the monthly Financial and Operations report gave the total crude processed by the local refineries (Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company (KRPC) and Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC)] for the month of January 2018 as 204,877MT.
“KRPC accounted for 183,022MT while a total of 21,855MT was processed by KRPC,” said the report.
It stated that production by the two refineries during the period translated into a combined yield efficiency of 89.97 per cent as against the 88.99 per cent in December 2017.
The report said in the month under review, 1,463.66million litres of PMS and 33.79million litres of DPK were supplied into the country through the Direct Supply Direct Purchase arrangements.
”The corporation’s supply of PMS into the country during the period was far above the normal daily supply of 35 million litres per day to ensure products availability nationwide.
”The report reiterated that NNPC was inching closer to choosing financiers for its refineries with a view to achieving a 90 per cent capacity utilisation per stream day before the end of 2019,” continue the report.
The report listed crude oil pipeline vandalism among the biggest challenges that plagued the downstream operations of the corporation in January 2018, which put the corporation at disadvantaged position.
It said during the period under review, 194 pipeline points were vandalised, with PHC-ABA and ABA-Enugu pipeline segments of the network accounting for 187 points or 86.57 per cent of the affected pipeline.
The report gave the average international Brent crude price for January 2018 as 69.08 dollars per barrel as against 64.37 per barrel in December 2017.
The report said that over the last 12 months the crude oil price had risen by about 26.57 per cent.
It stated that the continuing efforts of OPEC and non-OPEC producers to stabilise the market as well as improving oil demand and other measures were responsible for the stability in the price of oil.